Parliament panel demands answers on Creţu

The European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee has asked the Commission to explain the work habits of its EU regional policy chief, Corina Creţu, following a report in POLITICO that nearly half of her cabinet resigned during her first year in office.

The chairwoman of the parliamentary panel, Ingeborg Grässle, sent written questions about Creţu to the Commission's top staffer, Secretary General Alexander Italianer, who will respond at a hearing in January.

"In an article published last week by Politico, several issues were raised concerning Mrs. Crețu's 'light work schedule,' 'her tendency to combine official trips with leisure travel' and 'chauffeuring family members,'" wrote Grässle, a German MEP from the European People's Party group. "The aforementioned Politico article raises concerns about Commissioner Crețu's professional conduct."

The unusually high turnover rate on Creţu's staff — with 8 out of 19 people in her private office gone in 12 months — came in the wake of concerns about the commissioner’s light work schedule as well as her tendency to combine official trips with leisure travel and to ask staff to perform personal tasks, such as doing laundry, shopping for groceries and chauffeuring family members.

Grässle justified her inquiry by referring to EU treaty provisions stating that "members of the Commission are required to discharge their duties in the general interest of the Union."

"As stated in the Commissioner's Code of conduct, this implies that Commissioners should behave in a manner that is in keeping with the dignity and the duties of their office," she wrote. "The European Court of Justice has emphasized this means the Commissioners are required to observe the highest standards of conduct and to ensure that the general interest takes precedence at all times, not only over national interests, but also over personal ones."

Italianer will "cooperate" in the committee hearing slated for January 14, according to a Commission spokesperson.

"The Commission will — as every year — cooperate fully with the EP in the framework of the annual discharge exercise," Alexander Winterstein said. "We will reply to all questions the EP puts to us — directly to the EP, not through the press."

After the report was initially published in POLITICO, the center-right European People's Party group in the Parliament decided at a meeting last week in Strasbourg to raise the questions with the Commission. Creţu, a former MEP, is a member of the center-left Socialists and Democrats group.

"I explained to my colleagues at the meeting last Monday that the investigation is a very serious one and we have to see what has happened," said Cristian Preda, a Romanian MEP. "It's up to the Budgetary Control committee to see the activity of the Commissioner and how the money was spent."

Grässle has asked Italianer several questions, including: how the Commission will "shed more light on the allegation mentioned in Politico"; whether any former staffers filed a complaint; how many college meetings the Commissioner attended; how many professional and private trips Creţu has combined, how her chauffeur service has been used, and whether Commission rules on use of official resources have been upheld.